Sharanya is Wonkhe’s SUs Community and Policy Officer. She joins Wonkhe from Middlesex University SU, where she was Senior Campaigns and Influence Coordinator on the union’s Senior Leadership Fast Track – designing policy briefings, coaching elected officers, and translating student insight into campaigns. She launched the Ideas for Change petitioning platform and overhauled the union’s democratic structures to get more students involved across the year.
Before moving into staff roles, Sharanya spent two terms as a sabbatical officer at Royal Holloway SU. In her first term, as VP Education, she co-designed the university’s Access and Participation Plan and managed a network of over 350 academic representatives. In her second term, as President, she led the NeverOk and HelpNotHarm campaigns on harassment, sexual misconduct and drug harm reduction. Sharanya holds a BSc in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Royal Holloway.
Outside of work she can be found in the gym, out on a run, or making ambitious progress on a reading list that has never once got shorter.
38 pieces
Newest first, since June 2026 · page 1 of 2
· SUs · Members
When bursary money arrives matters as much as how much students get
JS Group data shows when students need support and what they spend it on – we set out the findings, the caveats, and what SUs can push for
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs · Members
What SUs need to know about the detailed plans for the new TEF
The Office for Students has set out how the new TEF would work in practice – here’s what it means for the student submission, and the other big changes SUs need to know about
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs · Members
Four in five international students are shopping around, and graduate jobs are what will win them
With most international students weighing up several countries and the budget tying visa length to graduate jobs, we set out what SUs can push their university to do
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· Comment
Students and young graduates were promised support to change our lives – but the government ripped up the rulebook
Students were told a degree was the right choice, but the loans they took out keep getting worse. Sharanya Sivarajah sets out what the Budget owes them
· SUs · Members
Get repping – a daily ping that puts reps back at the centre
Firms keep selling universities ways around reps – Jim Dickinson and Sharanya Sivarajah set out why RepPing does the opposite, and how to join in
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs · Members
A new report links faith to belonging, charity, activism and student success
A new Equi report argues that faith helps students belong, give and succeed – but SUs are missing from its plans for regulators and university leaders
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs · Members
Turnitin’s licence pause gives SUs a year to ask questions
With Turnitin’s licence change postponed rather than dropped, Sharanya Sivarajah and Jim Dickinson argue SUs should push for a review of cost, evidence, and who owns students’ work
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs
Universities can’t keep demanding diagnoses the NHS is slowing down
The Fonagy review wants support to start before a diagnosis – Sharanya Sivarajah argues unless universities and DSA follow suit, students will be left in the middle
· SUs · Members
From primary school to PhD, what universities owe low-income students
Sharanya Sivarajah digests the Sutton Trust’s new best practice guide on social mobility – and finds plenty for SUs to hold their universities to
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· Comment
If we want social mobility, fund the universities that deliver it
If the funding debate is about value, Sharanya Sivarajah argues that the universities that serve their places deserve more of the conversation
· SUs
From Oslo to Hamburg – our January 2027 study tour
Ten years after the first Wonkhe SUs trip north, Jim Dickinson and Sharanya Sivarajah set out the route, the hosts and the costs for 2027’s study tours
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs · Members
Broken lifts, cold libraries, and the wellbeing case for better student space
A new Student Minds report links leaky windows, harsh lighting, and lost staff kitchens to wellbeing – Sharanya Sivarajah sets out what SUs can do with it
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs · Members
A new report is out on employment disadvantage and here’s what SUs need to know
Sharanya Sivarajah digests a new Graduate Futures Institute survey of careers staff – and finds SUs missing from a story they should be central to
With Wonkhe SUs explainer
· SUs · Members
You can’t say that
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs
What happened at Senate Summit 2026?
Jim Dickinson, Sharanya Sivarajah and Mack Marshall round up the first Wonkhe SUs Senate Summit – assessment, employability, rights and Europe, session by session
With Jim Dickinson and Mack Marshall
· SUs
Every issue affects students as students, if you draw the line right
Sharanya Sivarajah reflects on a summer of meeting sabbs who are tired of hearing the they can’t campaign on issues that don’t affect “students as students”
· SUs · Members
Course correction
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs · Members
Credit where it’s due
With Jim Dickinson
· Comment
There’s 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end that
Sharanya Sivarajah and Jim Dickinson explain what they learned on a summer of SU training visits, where students patiently patched up the gaps their universities left behind
With Jim Dickinson
· SUs · Members
Rights here, right now
With Jim Dickinson